licence to print money
- noun
- /ˈlaɪsəns tə prɪnt ˈmʌni/
- UK
:
licencia para imprimir dinero
- He described his latest business venture as a licence to print money due to its rapid success.
Examples
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They"re my licence to print money.
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The new online platform has become a licence to print money for entrepreneurs.
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This place, having this place, is like a licence to print money!
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Many believe that investing in real estate is a licence to print money with the right strategy.
Synonyms
8
4.1
A project or business that earns a lot of money regularly
3
4.1
A business or product that makes a lot of money easily
A way to get easy regular money with little work
Antonyms
How Profitable
Surface Forms
Morphology
The constituents ('license' = permission, 'print' = produce on paper, 'money' = currency) literally yield 'permission to produce money', and this literal image is used metaphorically to mean an arrangement that generates large profits with little effort. Because the meaning depends on a figurative extension that is guessable from the parts but not fully predictable without contextual or cultural knowledge, a B1 learner would only partially infer it.
Etymology
The phrase licence to print money creates a simple image: if you had a real licence to print money, you could legally make lots of cash without hard work. That's why it means 'an easy way to earn a large amount of money with little effort'.